


Sometime Later

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Near Death Experience, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-10
Updated: 2010-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-07 03:50:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being alive must meant that, even though he has lost his fight, they have won the battle. Written in April 2005.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometime Later

The world blackened, flattened out, sharp and void of everything, until people become silhouttes and Shunsui slowly forgetting how to paint them wholly, under his eyelids.

It is nothing strange; it´s not the first time he tastes death.

After some time conciousness begins to creep at the edges of his existence again and he realizes he is not dead, because he knows what death is like and there is no scent there, and here he can smell Nanao by his side, clearly, and he can hear her breathing, and feel the warmth of her fingers on his left arm.

And his wound stings like he is alive.

(thought alive is not such a precise word as he would like; he has always believed somebody should come up with a new-coined term for this afterlife that is Soul Society, this prison without bar, this sky without limits)

Being alive must meant that, even though he has lost his fight, they have won the battle.

(Aizen.

Gin.

Swords drawn between comrades.

Ukitake.

Kuchiki-chan.

The intruders.

Shunsui wonders.

He will ask Nanao about it all, later.

Later. For now he is just happy not thinking about it. Not thinking about anything, really.)

It´s okay with him that the first thing his eyes can focus on is Nanao; he would have hated his luck otherwise.

She looks tired and hard, but she looks in one piece.

"Captain?" Her voice is like tiptoeing because she is not sure just how much awake he is. She doesn´t even remember to withdraw her hand from his arm.

Shunsui tries to stand up a bit but a flashing, searing pain pierces his chest. Suddenly he can feel every stich to his wounds, feel them in the tip of his tongue, a bitter after taste.

"You shouldn´t do that," very grave, and Shunsui thinks the world has come back to normality with these her cutting words.

It´s enough to make him smile weakly and give him strenght to sit up over the thin matress on the floor, so they are side by side, but looking in opposite directions; looking straight into each other´s eyes.

Shunsui can´t tell exactly when it happened but suddenly he notices the absence of warmth on his skin, the absence of five little fingers on his forearm.

"I told you, you shouldn´t be worried about your captain."

Nanao lowers her head, choosing indignation as a means of survival, the old self-defense mechanism that has kept Shunsui at a safe distance for so long.

"You were lucky the medical squad is so effective."

He shrugs; his hair is free and falls over his shoulders. He is naked under the sheets. Nanao can´t help but noticing what a beautiful animal, undomesticated and raw, her captain is.

"You speak as if you were dissapointed, that I didn´t die out there."

Something flutters angrily inside of her and her eyes widen, gleaming. She doesn´t want Shunsui to see her cry so she presses her forehead against the hollow of his neck, and breathes into his chest. He is too stunned to hold her.

"You idiot..." there is fondness in the insult, Shunsui finds it almost familiar. "You were going to die...you..." Sobs blur her words until they are barely audible. "I..."

Shunsui grabs her by the arms and takes her away from him. She feels so weak, so small to his touch, a trembling creature with big, beautiful eyes full of doubts.

He shouldn´t enjoy seeing her like this. He shouldn´t.

"I´m such a bad person," he says, getting up a bit a bit more, propelling himself on the palms of his hands. "I always say I don´t want to see Nanao-chan sad. Still..."

He bends, slowly, but Nanao cannot get any reaction in; he stretches to her and licks the traces of tears from the soft skin of her cheeks.

He smiles.

She pretends to regain a steady breathing, but she can never fool him.

"These tears make me very happy. I´m honorured that Nanao-chan might be sad for my death."

"You idiot..."

This time she throws her arms around his neck and embraces him properly. She holds him tightly, desperatedly, so much that it actually hurts. But this is pain Shunsui can endure easily. He puts his own arms around her waist in return, carefully, as if not to break her, marvelling at how thin she has got lately, bowing silently to make it up for all the suffering he has caused her.

He will definitely ask her about the battle later.

Much later.


End file.
